wyoming game and fish

[elkantler75]

the tag increase of 20 percent across the board for wyoming game licensces will begin in july of 2007. this years tag prices should not be affected that much from last year. this increase will only provide funding for modernizing of state run facilities and upkeep cost for the department. where is the wolf management money going to come from? if wolves are managed down the road, an additional tag increase will be added. the state is stalemate with the federal government now as to how the wolves should be catagorized. the state wants to consider them predators outside of wilderness areas but the feds want them classified as trophy animals throughout the entire state. putting trophy status on the wolves will only end up costing the sportsman more money. it wont be cheap to regulate these animals as trophies and that is why the state will not agree to the trophy classification. why do we as sportsmen have to foot the bill for all intelligent management of our resources? nonsportsmen need to fund some of our conservation efforts also. just my 2 cents worth. what do you think?

 

[MortgageMan]

I agree with you...It seems that its always the sportsmans job to create revenue to help the wildlife. I feel that everyone should have to pay or help out one way or another to ensure that the wildlife are managed appropriately, not just the sportsmen.

 

[SMOKESTICK]

That is exactly what Wyoming's Sportsmen are trying to do. HB085 allocates money from the general fund for 6 specific management options:
1-Sensitive Species Program
2-Habitat Program
3-Conservation Education Programs
4-General Programs
5-Sage Grouse Conservation
6-Veterinary Service Programs

Several Sportsmen's groups have been working on this piece of legislation. Hopefully, we can prevail. Funding was cut in half when it passed the House. The Senate Appropriations Committee will be hearing this bill tomorrow morning. It might be a good idea to contact your Wyoming Senators to express your support for this if you believe Sportsmen should not be carrying to entire funding for wildlife programs.

Wyoming lost its lottery bill that would have also contributed to the Game & Fish Department budget.

 

[elkantler75]

i just sent 2 emails to the senators offices here in wyoming. they contained a couple of letters that i wrote to peta trying to explain the hunters role in the conservation and management of wildlife, wolves included. petas response to my letters was that sportsmen provide hardly any money through licensce fees for wildlife programs. can this be true? they also explained that a better way to manage for herd numbers was to steralize sections of the herds and packs to control populations. this sounds a little unnatural to me. sometimes i feel like i am beating my head against the brick wall.